


Howling for the Light

by LunaUlric



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: AU, F/M, Requested fic, Werewolf, World of Darkness, lunyx, otp, this is sorta dystopian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 17:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19381264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaUlric/pseuds/LunaUlric
Summary: Luna survived. She doesn't know why and how to live the rest of her life in the dark world. But she meets someone from the past in a form she least expected.------**This is a requested fic on tumblr**Anonymous asked: What if we had a little moment where Nyx turns into a wolf like link did in twilight princess? His form is corrupted when darkness takes over but his soul manages to fight it and retains his soul in wolf form. I can imagine a dark gray wolf with braids trying to find a way to save the world from complete darkness. His soul fighting between the light and the dark. I dunno. Some weird brain storming here. Caught between two favorite characters. >_< anyway, bye!





	Howling for the Light

**Author's Note:**

> Hi anon! I know very little about the Zelda games and I only knew them from a friend of mine so I had to draw inspiration from movies that have some kind wolf in them or some human transforming into another creature (e.g. That Hulk movie with Eric Bana, Princess Mononoke (slight insp.), I Am Legend and a lot of werewolf films) I was supposed to write that “little moment” but I ended up writing 3,700+ words so I hope it’s not too long lol. I added some dystopia feel by incorporating some “World in Darkness” theme to it. Took liberties to change stuff in canon aside from the ship of course. Made Luna more hardened but not too much. All in her POV. 
> 
> This may not be what you expected but I hope you’ll still like it.

There was no light to tell much of time nor was there anything that resembled of the world before. Death had become the glaring evidence of the plague, as if its sole purpose is to take whatever life it touches and turn it into darkness. It was the scourge that overtook the whole Eos. They were meant to stop it. There were supposed to see light at the end of the journey. But it wasn’t the end of the journey. At least, not what Luna had envisioned. 

The former Oracle Princess stared at her hands that held no more light. There were times these hands were clasped together in prayer and there were many instances that she had laid her palms in all kinds of pain and suffering to see them gone before her eyes. These were the hands that made a difference.\

That was about five years ago or so. 

Things changed when she was stabbed and thought to have died. No one heard her prayers anymore, no light in these same hands that now toiled for survival. Perhaps she was meant to wait out the darkness. Or maybe there was a twist of fate and the knife should have pierced deeper. As if being alive was a sin and she was banished into the wilderness for the rest of her existence.

While the answers to the why’s remained mysterious, she quietly settled alone in anonymity, in an abandoned cabin that the nearby scourged town hadn’t offered nor claimed, tucked away in the midst of the ruins. And in her stay, Luna had created a home and made a hobby out of collecting things from the darkness’s wake. She found books, clothes, chairs, lamps, an embroidered picture of a sylleblossom. Anything that her once-gifted hands could take. Even, Umbra, her faithful pup, aided in her impromptu quest for these things. He always smiled at her the way a dog should for their friends. She’d talk to him, sometimes of things that would bother her because maybe he knew the answers somehow. But at the end of the day, the four-legged creature was limited to what he truly was - a friend in the dark.

While everyone trembled and spent most of their time within their homes when the darkness overtook the world, the princess-turned-scavenger somehow found peace in this old cabin. Not absolute and complete peace but it’ll do for now. 

It was freedom, at least. Freedom from a burdensome destiny, though not the kind that people would celebrate on.

As always, right before they head out to get firewood, Umbra sniffed around the blanket that Pryna, his sister, used to rest on. Luna waited for him to finish as if it was a necessary ritual that would bless their venture.

The cabin was filled with memories of known and unknown. And of course, they dwelled more into their own. For Umbra it was his late sister’s blanket. For Luna, it was a childhood book that her brother gave, the dried syllablossom in between the pages that a friend had pressed for her a long time ago and the blade from a glaive that saved her during the chaos in Insomnia.

That’s all that was left in this life. Her and Umbra, and the memories.

As Umbra sniffed to search for his sister’s scent, Luna’s fingers rested on the hilt of the blade that nestled in her makeshift holster. She felt the groves of the carved design and the dangling beads. She felt its weight and it made some amount of melancholy resurface.

It ended when the dog reluctantly left the blanket to approach Luna.

She scratched his head to greet. “I miss her too.” she said to him

Umbra nudged his nose into her palm. A thanks.  

Then, Luna grabbed her oversize coat and wrapped herself with it. She wore boots, tied her golden hair into a quick ponytail and grabbed the loose leather bag and the ax. When she saw the darkened sky, she prayed in her mind for safety. A habit she still couldn’t shake off.

Umbra barked and it caught her attention. His snout was pointing at the flickering lamp that rested on the stand.

“Ah yes.” Luna said under her breath. She grasped the gas lamp but its handle. “Ready?”

The dog affirmed with a bark and a set of tail wags.

And then, together they left into the wilderness where the firewood would be.

.

.

.

She let the weight of the ax do its job: to split the fallen branch into two. Luna wiped the beads of sweat from her brow as she let the heavy tool drop on the ground. She stared at the half-filled bag and estimated how much more they needed to last them two days at least. Umbra sat nearby like a statue. Only his ears moved every so often. The gas lamp flickered, making their shadows dance slightly on the tree trunks. They were at the edge of the forest, in the usual path where there were no travelers dared to go near where the scourged creatures would be. Only she and the dog would risk being out here for firewood.

Umbra stood in his four legs. His eyes locked on a spot in the forest. Luna peered but her human eyes could never see beyond the dark.

“Do we have company?”   
  
Umbra’s reply was to sit down again and resume on his guarding, which meant that she can continue on her chore. She picked up the ax and brought it down again, aimed at the larger half of the branch. She chopped off as much as her arms could possibly exert. The ax grew heavy as the air went colder. The former princess was never suited for this chore but the solitary years had taught her the essentials. She would get as much firewood as needed and she would get more the longer the darkness blocks out the sun.

Eventually, fire would become a constant need. Without light, the scourge and its creatures would get to them soon enough.

The bag was filled and Luna heaved to lift it to her back. Umbra stood from his spot and waited for her to move. She grabbed the gas lamp with one hand, the ax with the other, and started leading the path home. The dog striding at the back in case there was someone or something following them. Dead trees cast shifting shadows as they walked. Often times, it’s hard to tell if something moved. Umbra should be able to decide on that as his senses are more acute.

Everyday had been like this. Searching, chopping wood, going through ruins and dead forests. There were a few instances of creatures lurking nearby but both were able to sneak away and back to the cabin unscathed. But in all their walks, there hadn’t been any cases where she had to use the ax or even the glaive’s blade to defend herself.

A miracle, she supposed.  

Luna hummed a lullaby from distant memory while she continued on the walk. It eased the burden of carrying a pile of wood on her pack and she liked to imagine that some melody would calm Umbra’s nerves.

And, at least, it drowned out the eerie silence.

Umbra pulled on the hem of her coat. A sign that something isn’t right.

“What is it, Umbra?”

He just faced another dark spot in the forest with his ears focused on it. Luna tightened the hold on her ax. What was unsettling was that she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and yet her friend senses something that wasn’t there. Hopefully, their miraculous streak didn’t end here.

Umbra growled at the darkness, the first time in a long time. Luna dropped the pack and raised her ax even she knew she was awkward in handling the tool as a weapon

“Umbra, back away.” she said to the dog. But he started barking insistently, with the fur on his back puffed and his teeth showing. As the barks echoed, Luna began to see something move. But it was moving rather slowly as if it was cautious to approach.

Then, two lights appeared. More like two eyes reflecting the light.

Its silhouette began to emerge the nearer it got to the lamp’s light. Four legs moved one small step at a time. Dark gray fur melding with the night. Pointy ears that faced forward. A stature much taller than an average animal of its kind, almost as tall as a horse

A wolf, the biggest she had seen in her life.

“Umbra!” she hushly called to remind the careful retreat. But the dog kept barking its warnings to it as though the size difference between him and the wolf weren’t that much.

The wolf didn’t seem bothered by the Umbra’s aggression nor did it seem to have the effects of the scourge. The large animal seemed untouched by plague and it merely stared at her as if… as if it had known her. Staring back into its eyes revealed the blue irises, the ones that she had never thought she would see again. The more she returned the gaze, the more she felt safer somehow as if this wasn’t an animal at all.

The blue eyes surfaced memories of fireworks, exchanged smiles and his voice…

You don’t pull any punches, do you?

Luna gasped with her finger touching her lips. It can’t be.

Her feet began to gravitate towards the wolf. Seemingly encouraged by her response, the creature went nearer as well. However, Umbra growled a threat. Another step closer from the large animal and the dog lunged, landing a forceful bite on its paw.

The wolf uttered a growly yelp and shoved Umbra away, before running to retreat into the forest.

“Wait!” Luna called as she dropped the ax and chased after it.

Nyx Ulric was dead.

Luna herself saw his corpse turn into ash and disappear into the wind. All that was left was the blade he used in the Insomnian battle - the same blade she carried now under her coat. This wolf, this animal, shouldn’t be him but, somehow, it is him. It looked at her like he would, like in that night when the fireworks had decorated the sky and there a gift in his hand.

Was this the curse that the Lucii forced upon him? Turn him into a creature? Or was this something else? A twisted way for his life to continue? Either way, she needed to find out.

The wolf gained so much speed that its distance was already too much for her to cover. Umbra overtook Luna and went into a pursuit.

“Umbra stop!” she shouted.

Umbra reluctantly halted and gave her a confused tilt on his head. Luna didn’t waste and shouted again.

“Nyx!”

The wolf slowed to a stopped. It turned its head to glance back at her. A lowly expression was on its face.

“Is it really you?” she asked him in her small voice.

It walked back slowly and wary of the growling Umbra. Luna put a hand on her companion’s back to tell him that he shouldn’t be worried. Then the wolf stopped at a safe distance and, as soon as Luna faced it, its head bowed… like a glaive kneeling to a royal.

Luna felt her eyes welling up with tears. “Nyx…”

She rushed closer and gently touched the wolf’s fur on his head while he was still in a contrite posture. “No need to bow, my glaive. I am no longer of importance.”

The wolf opened his eyes to reveal again the blue as if he was about to speak. But he couldn’t utter anything. He could never speak in this kind of body, in this kind of curse. Luna continued to stare into those eyes, hoping she could somehow decipher what he was saying. There was only familiarity in them, of care and devout protection. A flicker of light in the darkness.

A hint of hope.

Suddenly, there was a sound of movement in the distance.

Nyx’s eyes wandered to the direction behind her with alarm. Luna heard Umbra’s growl again.

She turned and saw a shadowy creature with blank reflections of light on its eyes. Fangs were exposed, a mist of breath escaped. Its fur was thick and it stood menacingly, maybe three times larger than Nyx’s wolf form. Half of its face and body was that of a bear’s and half was covered in the ghastly black - an abomination brought by the scourge.

A monster from the forest. The one they should be running away from.

Luna remembered the ax and cursed to herself when she saw it behind the animal. Umbra started barking but he stayed on his spot defensively. And for the first time, the blonde heard the wolf growled in a low rumble, moving forward and putting himself in between the scourged creature and those he intended to protect. The bear roared its unearthly sound like it had accepted a challenge to fight, to take his prey, rising up in two legs instead of four, showing its imposing size.

The monster’s made the former princess’s hand reached for the hilt of glaive’s blade. It made her trembling stop. Umbra ceased barking and scampered back with tail between his legs.

But Nyx only seemed enraged as he continued to growl for warning. The wolf showed his sharp teeth and barked a loud threat. And before the inevitable, he gave Luna a split second glance.

Run, he seemed to say.

She didn’t want to leave him alone, not again. But a glaive’s blade is no help in this massive tooth and claw battle.

“Nyx…” she croaked. “Come back to me.”

The wolf’s ears twitched to her plea.

And the bear, the monster, broke the moment with a mighty roar. It charged with a far-reaching gait towards the wolf. Nyx advanced his attack with speed and went for the neck. The two creatures collided with teeth sinking into both flesh.

Luna wanted to scream his name but she was still trembling helplessly. Only when Umbra pulled on her coat was she reminded of the retreat. Both woman and dog ran away with the gas lamp jittering the light on their path, creating a chaotic picture of the escape while the beastly battle transpired behind them.

It was history repeating itself. A glaive staying behind to sacrifice his life, a princess running away to safety. Death must take place for the other to survive.

It never ends. Not if she can somehow break the cycle.

The blonde stopped on her heels and sprinted to a different direction, into the trees and on the path back to the battle. Umbra barked but she heard him follow nonetheless.

“We have to help him!” she told the dog and imagined him asking a bewildered ‘how!?’. “Well,” she breathed, “I’m still working on that.”

Soon, on gaps of the trees, they glimpsed on the bear and the wolf going at each other with brute force. The rabid creature swung a swift jab and Nyx evaded under before aiming his bite on the leg. The bear roared in pain and swung back with fury, hitting the wolf on the side and making him propel to a tree. Nyx yelped in pain on impact but he was quick to his paws and charged back onto his opponent.

A jab, a thud, a bite, claws digging into flesh, fangs sinking into every bite, blood splattering at every blow. The wolf went down, again and again, more times than the bear did. He went back up each time but he was growing wearier. After Nyx’s last attack, the bear paused, growling in irritation and pain because one of its eyes was mangled beyond repair. A small victory for the wolf but the sheer size if the monster was too daunting to overpower by simply keeping up with it. The wolf already bled from the claw marks and bites, too much energy was wasting away at every drop.

With Umbra still by her side, Luna ran a bit further and spotted the shimmer of the ax’s blade. It was at a reachable distance but dangerously too close to the bear. She wasn’t a runner or even great at stealth. She needed to wait for the bear to create distance from it. But she couldn’t just take her time. Any longer and Nyx would face a second death.

“Think, Luna, think.” she muttered, while she continued to witness the fight.

Nyx managed to clutch onto the top of the bear, biting on the side of its face. The monster roared in anger and sped towards nearby tree, hitting the wolf with it.

The wolf let go of his bite and coughed up blood. He heaved strenuously to get up with his hind led limping. The bear approached his prey, unknowingly moving away from the ax.

This was her chance.

The woman dropped the gas lamp nearby and sprinted to the weapon. She grabbed it by the hilt and raised it up. When the monster was about to bring down its deadly claws onto the wolf, she shouted on the top of her lungs.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

The mindless monster paused its claws mid-air and turned to her direction. The lone eye lit up in the dark. The bear roared as if it was annoyed by the interruption. Umbra’s barking from her side maintained the distraction long enough that the large beast to turn away from the wounded wolf.

It was now striding towards Luna.

Now what?

She raised the ax and threw the heavy weapon with all of her strength. And purely by chance, the flying blade chopped off its ear and a portion of flesh beyond it. The monster thundered a roar of pain, but it now charged towards her with all of its vengeance.

Luna started to run even though she knew no human could never outrun it. Her mind could only recite a prayer.

And it was answered

She turned and saw the wolf regained its stand and overtaking the bear.

Its jaws sinking deep into the bear’s throat and twisted it, making a bone snap audibly. The monster stumbled on its charge and soon crashed onto the ground with a heavy thud. Its body went limp and its face was lifeless.

And just like that, it was defeated.

Nyx emerged from under the corpse’s body, staggering up and facing his kill. The cuts on his side sill bled and he gasped of air. His posture waned as he stared away. Luna approached calling his name once more. However, there was something different.

Something so wrong.

When he turned, the blue on his eyes was gone. They only lit up in blank, as if there was no soul - The same as the eyes of the monster he had just killed.

Luna’s legs stopped. “… Nyx?”

Umbra rushed to her side and started barking aggressively to Nyx. If it’s still Nyx.

The wolf voiced a growl and focused his sights on her. Luna slowly reversed her steps while her hand reached for the glaive’s blade. His blade.

“Nyx, It’s me.”

But the wolf was just a wolf now, shoulders hunching in a quiet approach and seeking the blood in her veins. Her glaive was gone but maybe just buried underneath the animal.

“Nyx! Please! If you’re still in there, stop this right now! You are not this! You are not a monster!”

His ears didn’t seem to understand her words anymore. She pulled out the glaive’s blade from the holster. Her hands shook on the grip.

“Remember! Please remember me!”

The animal’s response was to charge. It was swift and sure of it urge. And she could only raise up her arms and brace for it.

And then, nothing happened.

She opened her eyes and saw the wolf just a few feet away, breathing heavily and staring at her. The blue in its eyes have returned but they only expressed fear and regret.

The creature backed away and ran. Luna followed his tracks immediately, calling him to stop. Umbra followed while he carried the flickering gas lamp. But Nyx kept fleeing into the dark as though he belonged there. Then, in her dimming view, his figure began to shrink. Fur was shedding, like bread crumbs on the ground for her to follow. His sprint became clumsy and soon there were only two legs instead of four.

He stumbled and fell to the ground. Luna slowed and she saw his silhouette staying down in defeat. He curled up and shivered. Scratches and bruises covered his naked body.

It was Nyx - alive, human and wounded.

When she was near enough, she removed her coat, crouched down next to him and quickly covered him with it. He shook helplessly to the cold and she rubbed his shoulder for warmth. His face, his vulnerable human face told of pain and torment.

“… Get… get away from me or I’ll… I’ll hurt you..” he pleaded.

Luna shook her head and remained with him. “No, I’m safest by your side”

Questions swirled in her mind. He was wolf only partially in control of himself but here he was, as a human again. How was this possible? Why was this even made possible? But the joy of this miracle, of seeing her glaive return to her in whatever shape or form, caused thoughts to set those mysteries aside.

Her hand reached his cheek and his blue eyes found her as though she was the light in the dark.


End file.
